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Pumping without pregnancy

I am adopting a baby girl in 6 weeks and I am trying very hard to produce milk so that I can provide breast milk to the baby. I have started pumping but don't think I am doing enough. 10 min each side 2-3 times a day. I am also drinking the Yogi tea, 3x daily and am taking 1.50 ml of tincture blend daily.
I know that the likelihood I can produce is low since I had a hysterectomy 2 months ago and have zero estrogen. However, I have always been an "overachiever" in the boob area and so I was hopeful. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Re: Pumping without pregnancy

Check out that link from Andrea. IIRC, there's a lot more you can do to induce lactation. Don't worry about the hysterectomy, though: you really don't need a uterus to produce milk since milk production is controlled by the brain, not the womb. And I know someone IRL who had a hysterectomy and breastfed her adopted child.

Re: Pumping without pregnancy

Re: Pumping without pregnancy

Originally Posted by @llli*goldsoul

I am adopting a baby girl in 6 weeks and I am trying very hard to produce milk so that I can provide breast milk to the baby. I have started pumping but don't think I am doing enough. 10 min each side 2-3 times a day. I am also drinking the Yogi tea, 3x daily and am taking 1.50 ml of tincture blend daily.
I know that the likelihood I can produce is low since I had a hysterectomy 2 months ago and have zero estrogen. However, I have always been an "overachiever" in the boob area and so I was hopeful. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I think it would help to pump more often if you can. I would try to mimic how a baby eats. Also - Domperidone ROCKS!!! I am also planning to adopt a baby in less than 3 weeks. I started pumping 2.5 weeks ago and I think that things are going well. However, I didn't realize how hard this would be when I started - it is easy to feel discouraged.

I pump for about 15 minutes every 1-2 hours - except for at night (i only wake up about 1-2 times - it is so hard to wake up without a baby and not much milk). While pumping, I massage my breasts and occasionally take the pump off and hand express. I get more milk by hand expressing - but the pump helps with nipple stimulation. I am getting about 1/8 - 1/4 of an oz every hour. This amount seems to be increasing every day. I am also taking 10 mg of domperidone 3 times per day and fenugreek.

By they way - it took about a week an a half to get any real significant amounts of milk and I had been taking domperidone for about 4 days.

I try not to stress about it - but I hope that I have more milk when the baby is born.

Re: Pumping without pregnancy

I was also going to suggest pumping more often... if you are trying to stimulate a supply from scratch, you definitely need to be pumping every 2 hours or so. And I also agree some Domperidone might help, so maybe look into getting a script so you can help get your supply going. Good luck mama!!

IRL all my friends call me Buff, Wife to CB since 10/11/2003

Mom to DD - "MJ" born 9/2007 @ 8lbs 10oz, 21.5" She's 6 years old!
My journey nursing MJ started HERE, but we got through it and she breastfed 19.5 months, self-weaned on 5/17/09